BA Geography with International Study / Course details

Course unit details:Development and Inequality

Unit code

GEOG20122

Credit rating

20

Unit level

Level 2

Teaching period(s)

Semester 2

Offered by

Geography

Available as a free choice unit?

Yes

Overview

This course will critically discuss the complexities of ‘poverty’ and ‘development’ as contradictory and powerful terms that take on particular meanings in different intellectual, institutional and political movements. Focusing on the global south, the course will interrogate how patterns of uneven development are (re)produced at different spatial scales by considering key development-geographical theories, concepts and approaches. We will draw on a variety of critical theoretical perspectives and illustrate arguments with a broad series of case studies and examples. We will consider how the complexity of poverty can be researched, and contemplate the methodological tools at our disposal to undertake primary and secondary data collection and analysis.

Throughout the course there will be opportunities to relate academic enquiry to the real world through considerations about research, topical debate, guest speakers, and campaigning for awareness about key issues. All students are expected to actively engage in the seminars. This is a broad course that serves as an introduction to development understanding to construct a possible pathway through, for example, the dissertation and third year development modules possibly linking to further study in the Global Development Institute.

Aims

To introduce students to key theoretical concepts used in development geography;

To provide a critical review of the socio-cultural dynamics of poverty and development at different scales;

To critically analyse development policy and demonstrate how contemporary understandings of poverty and it’s alleviation have developed and are understood;

To show how developmental processes are unavoidably political and uneven;

To illustrate these processes by means of concrete historical-geographical examples from the global south at a host of different scales;

To equip students with the tools to develop dissertation proposals about development and inequality.

Learning outcomes

To introduce students to key theoretical concepts used in development geography;

To provide a critical review of the socio-cultural dynamics of poverty and development at different scales;

To critically analyse development policy and demonstrate how contemporary understandings of poverty and it’s alleviation have developed and are understood;

To show how developmental processes are unavoidably political and uneven;

To illustrate these processes by means of concrete historical-geographical examples from the global south at a host of different scales;

To equip students with the tools to develop dissertation proposals about development and inequality.

Teaching and learning methods

The course unit will be delivered via weekly one-two hour lecture discussion sessions, with a variety of individual and group activities. A high level of student participation will be required from all students throughout the course. Reading prior to the lectures is required and additional reading around the themes of the lectures is expected. All lecture materials will be hosted on Blackboard.

The lectures will be supported by weekly one hour seminars. The seminar series will take us out of the lecture theatre, physically and metaphorically, to tease out the discussion about development and inequality. Students will also be challenged to increase their social responsibility by thinking about their place in the world as global citizens.

Transferable skills and personal qualities

During this course unit, you will be encouraged to develop the following abilities and skills:

An ability to assess the merits of contrasting theories and explanations;

An ability to relate theoretical argument with empirical evidence, including the construction of theoretically informed real-life research;

Critical thinking and reflection;

Team working;

Motivation and self-directed learning;

Awareness of the issues facing the globe and your responsibility as a global citizen.

Assessment methods

40% of the mark for the module is through a piece of written coursework that has a public facing element. 60% of the mark from the module is through an examination. Full details of the assessment will be provided.

Feedback methods

Feedback will be provided in the following ways during this course unit: